Pages

Saturday, 10 March 2012

Triarch Stalkers - Can I get what I want from them?

I played against Space Wolves earlier this week at the local club and was chatting to my opponent, John about my Necrons.
I was just messing about with ideas and I've refined my Storm Lord list quite a bit since I last ran it, so I was playing with that.
John asked if I'd used stalkers much and was saying that he had a regular opponent that ran them all the time to devastating effect.
Personally, I can't really make them work, BUT said that I'd try them out next Wednesday club night. So let's have a look at what we can do.

I think the Necrons army needs to be very shooty to make use of the TL'ing from the Stalkers.. Needs a larger amount of AV13 for saturation, needs to get an advantage from Night Fighting (of course lol!) and needs to remain mobile enough to put pressure on any given area of the field.

I'd normally achieve this last point by using my (almost) patented Dual Veil Immolators ...wait, hold on...Immortals (I've been building Sisters today..well, Band of Brothers.. but more on that tomorrow).. BUT in this army, the stalkers are so expensive for what they are, that I really can't afford the Veils.

A different approach then to troops in this build. I have been using Night Scythes a lot in my Storm Lord army and I have been enjoying them, except that I have to bring them to an average Night Fight distance in order to get their own shooting off.. this is problematic for obvious reasons and I'd like to use them to their full potential in this army...
Pwn Barges are just too good to pass up and are required for the use of Royal Courts, and to gain maximum Night Fighting benefit. 2 of the chaps with just a bare bones Warscythe and a Command Barge (Gauss) clocks in at 180 each or 360 for the pair.

Two Night Fight-o-matics are 55 each, 110 total. That buys us 2 turns of Night Fighting and capitalising on putting hurt on untouched.. relatively.

2 Stalkers are required for the theme of this list. Now, John..the guy I was talking to at the club, said that his mate had found the best results from TL Heavy Gauss so they could stay at range and just plink away..but not only is Stalker already an open topped 150 point melta target, to upgrade to the TLHGauss is another 15 points. Sorry, John.. can't do it! So 2 basic Stalkers it is, they maintain some range 30" effective range. They can skirt the maximum Night Fight range and dance in to blast away with 2 Melta shots, or 4 with both working in concert..

Fast is normally for Scarabs, but I'm going to abandon them for Heavy Destroyers, 2 units of 2, hunting the living in pairs and shooting after the Stalkers to benefit from the TL'ing. They act like predatory scavengers... finishing off what the bigger, badder Stalkers can't.. I do accept that they are very easy to knock down, have a limited ability to get back up, pimarily due to the small unit size presented in this list...screw it, it's experimental at best anyway..

Troops are usually easy for me but I cannot afford the staple Immortals due to high cost of Veil and the high cost of Stalkers, the two do not sit well together in this format. Warriors it is then in Night Scythes.
I think I can only get 3 x 5 with Scythes and have a 5 man reserve unit to walk on and get onto the home objective.

So the list I will be trying out on Wednesday is:

Overlord, Warscythe, Command Barge - Gauss

Overlord, Warscythe, Command Barge - Gauss

Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse, Gaze of Flame

Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse

Triarch Stalker - Heat Ray

Triarch Stalker - Heat Ray

5 Warriors

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

5 Warriors - Night Scythe

2x Heavy Destroyers

2x Heavy Destroyers

Annihilation Barge - Dual Tesla

Annihilation Barge - Dual Tesla

Annihilation Barge - Dual Tesla

1850
The Gaze of Flame goes in as the list has 10 points spare.. it really is not going to add anything here though as any unit that is charged will get arse raped anyway..
There is an option to attach both Crypteks to the 5 man Warrior unit so they can shoot away with 2 S8 shots.. But I am not the biggest fan of this tactic..
Anyway, it is quite tough.. it has a huge amount of Tesla shooting, some very capable high strength shooting and a good amount of mobility in order to take down a section of the enemy army before moving on to the next..

Time will tell if it is any good, I am skeptical, but confident in the other elements of the list.. so let's see.. Any of you guys use Triarch Stalkers successfully? If so, how? Is this similar, can you give some ideas of how to use them? My thoughts are not to bother getting into Melta range, just plink away at 24" and enjoy AP1..

What would you suggest bra'h? I don't want to limit my ability to shoot after the Triarch's are dead/they kill their target/god forbid I want to shoot multiple targets etc... lol.

What changes do you suggest? The FOC doesn't allow for much else? Perhaps getting in more destroyers? I'd love to TL a 10 man Gauss/Veil Immortal unit around, but the points are just too tight..

Tomb Blades are already TL if you go Gauss, or S6 Template would benefit as well, but I am not a fan of the unit.. The only other real shooting comes from Deathmarks which hit very reliably against their target, or of course from Dev style Courts.. which I personally find to be very killable..

Hey gary, What are you doing with the troops in this build? double lances in two warriors and immortal with one warrior in reserve? I'd like two stalkers and two destroyers (same size) just for more av saturation.. I like the idea of the stalkers but just cant get happy...